Reinvigorate provides real-time web analytics and heatmaps. The features include Snoop, a desktop stats application that alerts you every time you have a new user signup or visitor; and NameTags, a feature that allows you to identify your registered users and gives you insight into their habits and usage. The company, founded by Sean McNamara, launched in August 2010.

Hot Potato combines the news feed aspect of Facebook with the location features in services like Foursquare. You choose a verb (like “attending”) and a location (like “the Super Bowl”) and Hot Potato will post this from your account. The idea is to connect with other friends who might be doing the same thing, or to keep friends updated about your activities. Friends can then comment on what you’ve posted. For those friends not using Hot Potato, you can push your updates to services like Twitter and Facebook. Hot Potato also offers rewards, much like Foursqare’s mayorships and badges.

It’s not immediately clear how or if Facebook will integrate Hot Potato with its site. Earlier this week, Facebook unveiled Places, which allows users to “check in” to certain places from their Facebook accounts.

Forecaster eMarketer has raised its outlook for U.S. social networks advertising spending this year by nearly 30 percent. As I discuss in a post at GigaOM Pro, chances are, the next big advancement in social media marketing will be less about the actual technology and more about coordinating and integrating across media formats: traditional media for reach, interactive media for targeting, and social media for engagement. For this to happen, three social media advertising areas need help: scale, distribution and targeting, and format.

Are you seeing ROI with your Social media ad spending? Have you invested in Social media as part of your annual marketing budget? Not sure where to start? Contact us today at 11Marketing for a free 30 minute social media advertising consultation.

Starting today, you can immediately tell people about that favorite spot with Facebook Places. You can share where you are and the friends you’re with in real time from your mobile device.

 

 

Checking In with Friends

 

Ever gone to a show, only to find out afterward that your friends were there too? With Places, you can discover moments when you and your friends are at the same place at the same time.

 

You have the option to share your location by “checking in” to that place and letting friends know where you are. You can easily see if any of your friends have also chosen to check in nearby.

 

To get started, you’ll need the most recent version of the Facebook application for iPhone. You also can access Places from touch.facebook.com if your mobile browser supports HTML 5 and geolocation.

 

Go to Places on the iPhone application or touch.facebook.com site and then tap the “Check In” button. You’ll see a list of places near you. Choose the place that matches where you are. If it’s not on the list, search for it or add it. After checking in, your check-in will create a story in your friends’ News Feeds and show up in the Recent Activity section on the page for that place.

 

Example of a Place page on the iPhone application.

 

Places is only available in the United States right now. But we expect to make it available to more countries and on additional mobile platforms soon.

Is Facebook places going to force some of the Foursquares, Gowallas and the Yelps of the world to check out because they can’t compete with the budget, might and userbase of Facebook? Have you tried any of these location-based social networking games yet? How much harder will it be to become the Facebook Places version of “mayor” of your hometown Starbucks now?

Harvard Business School (Harvard Full-Time MBA Profile) and Columbia Business School (Columbia Full-Time MBA Profile) have joined a growing list of business schools that are adding courses on social media to their MBA curricula, addressing the corporate demand for social-network-savvy employees. The two schools are among at least six that have added courses in the past year that allow students to learn about Internet marketing and social media strategy, according to course syllabi and faculty associated with the classes.

Fast Follow. Anyone in the US can receive Tweets on their phone even if they haven’t signed up for Twitter. This is a simple way for people to get information they care about in real-time. For example, let’s say you want to get Tweets from New York City’s office of emergency management (@NotifyNYC). Just text ‘follow NotifyNYC’ to 40404 in the US.

Try it out the next time you see a Twitter @username at a restaurant or store, on a billboard or on TV, or if you hear one mentioned on the radio.

Shopkick is an app, which will be available in the next few weeks on the iPhone and later for other kinds of phones, that retailers can use to track when shoppers have entered a store and reward them with points or discounts.

Other location-based apps, like Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt, also function as virtual loyalty cards. Shopkick says it is different in a few critical ways.

The other apps use cellphones’ GPS signals. That means that someone could stand on a street corner and check in to a place to earn points without ever setting foot inside. Foursquare’s new automatic check-in service, for instance, checks people in when they are within 300 meters of a location.

“Check-ins are a really nice start, but unfortunately, most of them are fake,” said Cyriac Roeding,  a founder of Shopkick.

But users of the other services say they are encouraged to check-in to where they actually are, since the point is to alert friends to their location.

Still, Shopkick wants to reassure retailers that they are only rewarding actual customers.

Instead of relying on GPS or Wi-Fi signals, Shopkick installs small devices in stores that send out an inaudible noise. Cellphones with the Shopkick app pick it up with their microphones.

No more bogus Foursquare / Gowalla / Yelp check ins?: Sounds good.
I actually get points I can use across several online and offline brands, including making charity donations: good. It’s only on the iPhone: not so great, but it’ll likely work on Android soon I’d guess. There aren’t enough retailers to make it a must have: also not good - especially here in Canada - but maybe one day Shopkick will arrive in Vancouver…

While Social Media is definitely the hot topic of conversation this year, most of the tools focus on consumer centric business, and improving communication. If you provide B2B consulting, services or products, your options for social media are fairly limited, let’s be honest you probably won’t find many fans for your Facebook Legal Incorporation Services page. For these types of businesses, LinkedIn is a much better alternative. Here is a collection of tips I recommend using.

Most important: be social. Don’t just create a LinkedIn account and think it’ll turn into leads and business without putting in the effort of joining groups, starting conversations, posting valuable information, being involved.

Seems like there’s a pledge idea missing from this Starbucks / Facebook social responsibility campaign: How about simply encouraging people to pledge to bring their own cup to #starbucks in the pledge ideas section ?

Nice custom facebook landing page (part of it shown above): http://www.facebook.com/starbuckscanada#!/starbuckscanada?v=app_4949752878 - get those clickable buttons above the fold I’d say. Also get me to to post something to my facebook status perhaps right from this landing page because this is probably the first and last time I’m going to see this Facebook page and landing page. I got to this page, by the way, from a banner ad on the free-wifi landing page while at Starbucks.

Lots of great  tips about community gardening here btw: http://www.evergreen.ca/docs/res/CG6-Community-Gardening-Ideas.pdf  Check out more ideas from http://www.evergreen.ca here in Vancover

For nearly 80 years, GQ Magazine has been known for its world class content for men that highlights the best of fashion, style, and culture.

In Sydney, Australia, GQ has also compiled best in class editorial reviews and photos of many of the top bars and nightclubs in the city. As helpful as this content was, until yesterday, it was not available to the people who could use it most – people who were out on the town, looking for their next stop.

Enter the DoubleDutch geolocation platform. By partnering with DoubleDutch, GQ was able to turn their best in class, local editorial content into the GQ BarSpy iPhone app – a social, playful, location powered city guide that combines GPS, game mechanics, and GQ content into a one of a kind experience.

You can try the free demo of the Double Dutch white label geolocation app via Itunes here http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/doubledutch/id336955484?mt=8 - it will feel very familiar if you’re a Gowalla or Yelp user. Pricing starts at $7500 setup plus monthly fee.